Invite buddies

Diving is better with people you know. Blue Trails pays you for bringing them: every buddy who joins with your code and starts logging dives earns you stars, and stars turn into free months of a higher plan.

Open it from Invite buddies on the share card of your profile.

Your own code is blurred here — yours is personal to you.

Your code

Every account gets a permanent code and a matching link.

• Share opens your phone's share sheet with both the link and the code in one message. Use this one. The link is what works when the other person already has Blue Trails; the code is the part that survives a trip through the App Store, so sending only a link quietly loses every new iPhone user.
• Copy link instead copies just the URL, for when you're pasting into a bio or a caption.

What has to happen before it counts

Signing up isn't enough — your buddy has to actually dive.

The rule is written on the screen, in your language, with the live numbers in it: a few dives, logged across a couple of different days. We tune those numbers occasionally, so read them off the screen rather than trusting a figure you remember.

Until they get there they show up under Getting started. Once they're through, they move to Counted and you get half a star.

You also get a star yourself for entering someone else's code — that's the "includes 1 for your code" line under your total.

Entering a code

If someone invited you, put their code in under Have a code? — it's at the bottom of this screen, and also on Edit profile. First code wins: once one is applied it can't be swapped for another, so use the one from the person who actually brought you here.

Stars and rewards

The meter runs to ten stars, and accrual stops at the top. A buddy who qualifies while you're sitting at ten earns you nothing, permanently — so spend them before you get there.

The ladder has four rungs — Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum — each costing more stars and paying out more free months on the plan one level above the one you're on. The exact costs and months are on the screen, under Rewards.

Two things worth knowing about how redeeming works:

• Only the best rung you can afford is offered. The cheaper ones show a padlock, not because you're blocked but because taking one would short-change you: the ladder deliberately pays more per star the further up you go.
• Redeem whenever you like, or don't. Cashing in at Bronze the moment you reach it is fine. So is sitting on the stars and waiting for Gold. The only bad move is stalling at ten.

Once redeemed, the upgrade is applied straight away and runs for the number of months on the rung. If you're already on the highest plan there's nothing above you to upgrade to, so the reward is banked and starts by itself the day your paid plan ends.

There's also a ceiling on how many gifted months you can take in a calendar year. Reaching it doesn't burn anything — your stars stay where they are and the button simply tells you when it unlocks again.

When a gifted plan runs out

You drop back to the plan you actually pay for. Everything you uploaded stays readable, but new uploads will be refused until you're back under the storage limit or you subscribe. The app warns you a week before it happens.

The partners programme

Beyond the star rewards there's a partners programme for instructors, dive professionals and creators who bring divers in at volume. Partners get paid in money rather than free months: a fee for each diver who joins through them and starts diving, plus a share of what those divers spend on subscriptions, with the rate climbing as the number of divers grows.

It isn't self-service — partners are approved by us one at a time. If you teach, guide or have an audience of divers and you'd like to be considered, write to contact[at]bluetrails.eu.

Where to look next

• Share your profile — the QR card this screen opens from
• Buddies — what happens once they're actually in